


you came and you took this heart

by styleslaurent



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Papa Louis, Pining, Teacher Zayn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 12:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4522554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/styleslaurent/pseuds/styleslaurent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis has a pathetic crush on his daughter's teacher that he fails to hide, but when she decides to help him out, things eventually take a turn for the better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you came and you took this heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alnima](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alnima/gifts).



> This fic was written for the following prompt: "Teacher/Parent AU where Zayn is Louis' kid (daughter, son idc) (like a 6 year old?) teacher and Louis gets called in bc the kid is misbehaving really badly (basically she/he is a little shit like Louis but like they're just outgoing and love to talk, they're not actually a bad kid) and Louis develops a crush. So basically cue Louis and his kid working together to get Zayn and Louis together. Louis volunteering with everything he can to help the class, just overcompensating Louis pining after Zayn and enrolling his kids help in getting Zayn's love! I just love when Louis tries really really hard and kind of comes across as a fool while Zayn is stupidly endeared."
> 
> I'd like to take a moment to thank my beta, Solange, who was nothing but lovely to me and helped me get rid of some silly mistakes, the exchange for allowing me to be part of this experience and of course alnima for her prompts! ♥

It’s on the first day of Rosie’s year in year six that Louis meets him: Mr. Malik, a young-looking man with a kind smile and tattooed arms.

It takes Louis exactly 3.2 seconds to fall in love with him.

-

When he picks his daughter up from school later that day, Louis can’t wait to hear what she has to tell him about her new teacher.

See, the thing is, while Louis had been very much in love with Rosie’s mother for nearly five years, he’s always been slightly more interested in men. Sure, women are lovely and he doesn’t have anything against them or regrets being with Rosie’s mother for so long, but he can’t deny that his knees go weak at the sight of a stubbled jaw. Funnily enough, that was the first thing Louis noticed about his daughter’s new teacher. And as if having a stubbled jaw wasn’t enough already, it was one hell of a _perfect_ stubbled jaw. So there’s that. It’s safe to say that Louis has been thinking about the man all day.

Thankfully, Rosie is still a bit too young to go to school on her own, so Louis gets the chance to see her teacher every now and then. Usually Rosie doesn’t allow him to bring her to her class, but Louis knows where Mr. Malik parks his car, and no one has to know that Louis deliberately parks his car there as well just to catch a glimpse of the man.

But while Louis tries everything he can to just catch a glimpse of the man, it’s not until two months later that he actually gets to _meet_ Mr. Malik.

-

It’s not really a surprise to anyone that Louis gets invited for a meeting about his daughter’s behaviour. She’s always been more like him than like her mother: talking whenever she gets the chance even when it’s not the right time for it, pulling pranks and joking around and, most of all, not behaving the way she should when she’s in class. It’s not that Rosie is a bad kid; not at all. Louis describes her as loud, outgoing, and enthusiastic, and _that’s_ the problem. While Louis thinks those are all very good qualities and continues to tell her so because he wants her to be confident and happy with herself, they might not be the best qualities for when she has to pay attention in her classes but refuses to because she’s too busy telling funny stories to her friends and giggling about them. So, no, Louis is not surprised.

But nervous?

That he is.

-

While Rosie is trying to do her homework the day after Louis gets the call, he has locked himself in the bathroom. He showers and shaves, does his hair, then does his hair _again_ , moisturises his face and checks himself out in the mirror for a good two minutes. When Louis finally decides that he looks okay, he moves to the bedroom to try on five different outfits before calling Rosie in because he just can’t do it without her opinion.

“What?” his daughter sighs, leaning in the doorway. She looks so sweet in her night gown, a pink one with flowers on it that she likes to put on after a long, tiring day at school. Louis loves her more than anything, doesn’t think he will ever be able to love another human being as much as he loves his daughter.

“Um,” Louis says, and he feels stupid, _so_ stupid, because he’s a grown man who’s dated more than enough people to have the experience he needs, but here he is asking his ten-year-old daughter for her help with picking an outfit.

Already having decided on jeans (black ones, tight enough to show off his bum and toned thighs, but not tight enough to embarrass his daughter), Louis holds up three different shirts.

“Which one will tell your teacher that I am a young and cool dad, but also mature enough to have a serious conversation about his daughter’s behaviour in class?”

“You’re _so_ not cool, dad,” Rosie says and turns to leave the room, but not before telling him that the blue button up is her favourite.

Louis smiles to himself and decides that he’ll tell her mother that Rosie is allowed to have chicken nuggets for tea tonight. She will most likely protest, but Louis thinks Rosie deserves them. She did help him make a very important decision, after all.

-

An hour later, after Louis has done his hair one more time and Rosie has been picked up by her mother, he’s ready to leave. When he got the call, he’d been a bit too forward and told Mr. Malik that he could come over as well, if that made things easier, but his offer got declined.

“More parents have been called in,” Mr. Malik had said. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. There’ll be coffee and biscuits.”

While Louis had been slightly disappointed, he also knew that going to his daughter’s school was a safer option. It’ll be easier for him to stop himself from dropping to his knees when he’s in a public building instead of in the privacy of his own home.

So, like, he gets ready to leave and his hands might be shaking, but Louis is capable of having a serious conversation with his daughter’s extremely attractive teacher. He totally is.

-

He totally isn’t.

Because Mr. Malik looks, to put it bluntly, extremely fuckable. Every single time Louis has seen him so far his hair had been gelled back, totally appropriate for a day of teaching, shirt buttoned up all the way to the top. But now that it’s just conversations with parents, no students around, Mr. Malik has apparently decided to just let his hair do its own thing, soft fringe falling down over his forehead and, well – the fact that _four_ of the buttons on his shirt are unbuttoned now don’t really help, either. Louis can’t stop staring. He wants to run his fingers through the other man’s hair and pull on it, wants to kiss down his neck until he reaches the tattoo on his chest and wants to leave love bites there. Ironically enough, Mr. Malik’s chest piece consists of a lipstick print with wings and all Louis can think of is putting his own lips on the lipstick mark.

He’s trying to pay attention, he really is, because it’s important and he needs to talk about it with his daughter as well but Mr. Malik – _Zayn_ , Louis reminds himself, because they’ve introduced themselves with their first names – might be the man of his dreams, really. He has the longest eyelashes Louis has ever seen and his skin looks so soft that Louis has to try really hard not to reach out and stroke his cheek. His voice is soft and like music to Louis’ ears. To be honest, he thinks Zayn might be the most beautiful man he’s ever seen.

But aside from his very pleasing general physique, Louis is also a big fan of Zayn’s character so far. Of course he already had a good feeling about the man from Rosie’s stories, but now that he’s actually in a conversation with him, Louis is convinced that Zayn Malik is an angel.

During their entire conversation, Zayn’s eyes are sparkling. Like he’s a fucking Disney prince and Louis is the princess who can’t help but fall in love with him because of faith and miracles and love spells and other cheesy stuff like that. But the thing is that Zayn is just so passionate about his job. Louis can just hear in his voice that he really loves his students, that he’s so proud of them and thinks the world of them. Even now, talking about Rosie’s bad behaviour in class, Zayn makes sure to also compliment her on several things. He even compliments Louis on raising her to be such a smart, bright girl and Louis blushes like a thirteen-year-old with a pathetic crush.

The conversation runs smoothly and if Louis does manage to make a fool of himself, Zayn is kind enough to not mention it or laugh at him. Which makes Louis fall for him even more. Really, how much more perfect can this man get?

When he leaves the school building 45 minutes later, it’s with butterflies in his stomach and a stupid smile on his face.

-

Things don’t really change after that. Louis still parks his car next to Zayn’s and he still asks Rosie if she has anything to say about him. He’s had a good talk with her, told her that school is the most important thing even when she feels like her stories are more important, and she’s promised him that she’d do better. She doesn’t want to make Mr. Malik dislike her, she said, because she thinks he’s the best teacher she’s ever had. Louis agrees, but he doesn’t do it out loud.

-

Another week later, when Louis is putting Rosie to bed, she’s weirdly quiet.

He lets her read one of her favourite books while he sits next to her, kissing her temple every now and then. They just do their own thing, really, reading their own books, but it’s nice. It’s always been a highlight of Louis’ day. The older Rosie gets, the more she wants to be alone, but this is their thing, their ritual before she goes to sleep. Louis appreciates it and fears the day his daughter won’t need it anymore.

They continue doing their thing for a couple of minutes, but when Louis notices Rosie is yawning, he takes her book away from her and stands up, wrapping the blankets around his daughter and making sure she’s comfortable for the night.

"Dad," Rosie says seriously after Louis has tucked her in.

"Yeah, love?" Louis asks, smiling as he gently kisses her forehead.

"Do you like my teacher?"

And, well. _Shit_. Louis definitely did not expect that. He was preparing himself to give her another speech on why she has to go to bed so early because she keeps asking him to stay up later. He was even preparing himself to answer some questions about him and her mother (Rosie's been curious about it lately), but definitely not this. He thought he'd been pretty good at hiding it, but he should have known. Nothing ever goes unnoticed when it comes to Rosie. She’s like a hawk, and it usually comes in handy when Louis loses his car keys for the fifth time in only three days, but now he hates it.

"Um," he says, scratching at his chin and looking anywhere but at his daughter's face. "Mr. Malik is a really nice teacher, love. That's all."

Louis has never told Rosie about his sexuality. He's never actively kept it a secret either, but he always figured she was still a bit too young to learn about it and that he’d tell her when she got curious about things like love. They have talked about homosexuality before, though, when they were watching T.V. and there were news items about it or when they were watching a movie that featured a queer couple. Louis didn’t really go into detail that much because he figured all those different sexualities would maybe be a little too confusing to a ten-year-old, but he told Rosie that love is love no matter the gender and she agreed.

It's just that since he got divorced from Rosie's mother, Louis hasn't really dated anyone. He's gone on a few dates with both men and women, but none of them stuck around long enough for Louis to introduce them to his daughter.

"But do you like him?" Rosie's voice shakes him out of his thoughts. Her eyes are big and wide and she has a sly smile on her face. Sometimes Louis wishes she was a bit more like her mother and less like him.

"I think he's a good teacher."

"Do you want to kiss his cheek and hold his hand like all the mums and dads at school do?"

Louis is fucked. Of course his daughter wouldn't let him avoid the question.

"Maybe a little bit," he admits shyly before kissing her forehead once again. "Bed time for you now. This is grown-up talk. You should be talking about ponies and kittens, silly girl."

Rosie giggles and snuggles deeper under the blankets, looking up at her father.

"I like him too, daddy. He likes my drawings and tells funny stories about his sisters."

She closes her eyes then, and Louis is left standing beside her bed with pink cheeks and a smile that's threatening to break his face for nearly thirty seconds, when he realises he should leave his daughter’s bedroom so she can go to sleep.

-

"I think I have a crush on my daughter's teacher," Louis sighs. He sits down on the bar stool next to Liam's and orders himself a beer.

"You _think_ ," Liam says, a little flatly. Sometimes Louis hates his best friend.

"I _think_ ," he challenges.

Liam just shakes his head with a smile and carries on drinking his beer.

They've been friends for a long time now, Louis and Liam. Started out on rivalling football teams of two rivalling schools, ended up as best friends since their third match against each other when Liam accidentally kicked the ball too hard and ended up breaking Louis' pinky finger when he tried to protect his face. Somehow they'd just clicked and kept in touch, even when Liam moved to America for two years when his boss asked him to.

Louis loves him because Liam knows exactly what he needs.

Sometimes that means he has to listen to Louis whine and complain and moan for hours on end. Sometimes it means he has to buy a shit ton of alcohol and get absolutely shit faced. Sometimes it means he has to talk about his fiancée Sophia or his dog to distract Louis from his thoughts.

He does all of those things without complaining.

“Why do you _think_ so?” Liam asks after a couple of minutes.

Louis sets down his beer and orders another one before answering.

“He’s just so fit, you know?”

“I don’t know.”

Louis slaps Liam’s arm, takes a sip from his beer and continues.

“He has, like, all these tattoos, yeah? On his arms and hand and chest and they look so good on him, better than they could ever look on _anyone_. And his cheekbones are to die for, honestly, and so is his jaw. God, his jawline Liam, you should _see_ him.”

Liam laughs and shakes his head again, resting a comforting hand on Louis’ arm.

“Mate, there is absolutely no doubt that you have a crush on that teacher. What’s his name?”

There’s a blush colouring Louis’ cheeks, but he carries on without acknowledging it.

“Zayn Malik. I tried stalking his profile on Facebook.”

“Zayn Malik? As in that guy I told you about a few months ago, who hit on me in a club last year and then became one of my good friends because he was so embarrassed when I told him I’m engaged to a lady, and that I needed to buy him two beers before he was able to look away from the floor?”

There’s a good chance Louis is going to kill Liam for this. And then he will die a slow, painful death himself.

-

“You know,” Louis says, taking a bite of his burger before he continues talking. “You could have just _told_ me you knew him.”

After the incident at the bar, as Louis likes to call it, he went into a panic-mode for nearly two days.

Liam sighs as if he’s suffering from something horrible and not just making a phone call with his best friend.

“You never told me his name, you just kept referring to him as _Hot Teacher_.”

Louis groans and puts his burger down to pull his knees up to his chest, wrapping his free arm around them and rocking back and forth a little. He feels bad for himself, okay? And Rosie is spending some time with her mother so he’s allowing himself to suffer for a while. Until she’s back. Then he’ll go back to normal.

“None of this would have happened if you were on Facebook, Payno. I would have sent him a message right after you told me about him and we would have gone on a date and we would have been a happy little family by now. I would be having sex daily, but no, it’s been months, a _year_ , and you know why?”

There’s no answer.

“Because you don’t have Facebook, Liam, that’s why.”

Louis ends the call and goes back to eating his burger.

Alright, he’s probably being dramatic. But honestly, why did Liam never think of introducing his two friends to each other? He’s known Louis for a long time now, long enough to know what kind of people he’s into, and Zayn clearly likes guys as well seeing as they met because he hit on Liam. Louis is offended. So, so offended, because there’s a big chance Zayn is the man of his dreams and his best friend has never even thought about introducing them. So he’s allowed to be a little dramatic, Louis thinks. All in the name of love.

-

"Mr. Tomlinson," Zayn says, Rosie walking behind him. Classes ended about fifteen minutes ago and Louis has been waiting outside the gate for twenty. He figured something had to be wrong but the sight of his daughter’s hot teacher makes him forget about that for a moment. Which probably makes him a bad parent, but – but he’s been thinking about the man basically non-stop. Blame his love sick brain.

Rosie makes sure to stay behind Mr. Malik as she shows Louis her thumbs, grinning proudly as she holds them up high in the air. Louis raises a curious eyebrow at her before focusing his attention on her teacher.

"Please, you can just call me Louis," he smiles. “’Mr. Tomlinson’ makes me feel so old.” No stuttering. 1 - 0 for Louis.

"Louis," Zayn says, smiling back before going back to a serious expression and turning towards Rosie.

"Your daughter here has been behaving very badly again," he says, trying to make his voice sound stern but Louis can hear the smile in it.

Right. That’s why they were so late, then.

Rosie has lowered her thumbs now but she’s still somewhat smiling, watching both her father and her teacher closely.

“Is that so?” Louis says, starting to get suspicious because of the look on his daughter’s face.

“We had a little talk about it and we’re okay now, aren’t we, Rosie?” Zayn replies, smiling down at the girl before continuing. “If she wants to talk about it with you then she can, but we solved it. She apologized. She got a warning, though, so if it happens again then we’ll have to call you and her mother in for another conversation.”

Louis suppresses a sigh and smiles as politely as he can, reaching out to take Rosie’s hand in his own as he pulls her towards him.

“No ice cream for dessert for you tonight then, you monster,” he jokes, but he can’t deny that he’s worrying. He knows his daughter can be a bit of a handful, but an official warning? That’s not something he thought his daughter would have ever needed. Louis decides that, even though she already solved the case with her teacher, he’ll have to talk about it with her anyway. Just to be sure.

They say goodbye to Zayn and get in the car. The drive home is quiet; Louis’ attention focused on the road while Rosie looks through one of her school books.

When they get home, Louis makes them both a cup of tea before they settle on the couch, watching some T.V. before Louis decides it’s time to confront her daughter about her little problem.

“Rose,” he says, setting his mug down on the table in front of them. He turns towards her and she looks up at him, eyes wide with worry.

“I can explain!” she exclaims quickly, before Louis can say anything else. He raises an eyebrow at her.

“You like him,” Rosie says and it makes him sigh.

“That doesn’t mean you have to behave badly, sweetheart. Why won’t you listen to him?”

Rosie rolls her eyes like he just asked her the dumbest question she’s ever heard.

“So you could see him again, dad! And talk to him!”

Louis is stunned. His daughter actually behaved badly in class just so that her pathetic, love sick father could talk to her teacher. He wants to reply, he really does, but he’s speechless. Completely speechless. His daughter is a cheeky, little shit. But God, Louis loves her. He doesn’t want her to ever do that again, doesn’t want her to be known as the bad, unruly kid just so he can get into contact with the man of his dreams, but the fact that she was willing to risk things just so her father could talk to her teacher makes him want to spend all of his money on presents just to see his beautiful, sweet, silly daughter smile.

-

When Louis comes to pick up his daughter from school a couple of days later, she’s nowhere to be found. He’s been waiting outside the gate for ten minutes once again, watching her friends leave with their parents but still not a sign from Rosie herself when he decides to go inside. Maybe she got in trouble again. Maybe Mr. Malik made her clean the classroom or something like that because she wouldn’t stop talking or drawing on her test papers.

But when Louis reaches her classroom, all he sees is the man he’s had a pathetic crush on for weeks. And that man sees Louis as well.

“Hi,” Zayn says, standing up from his desk and picking up the small tin Rosie took to school this morning.

“Hello,” Louis replies, his throat suddenly feeling dry.

Because, well – he and Rosie have been working together to get Mr. Malik’s attention. Rosie is a smart and bright kid and apparently has been thinking of ways to get her father and her teacher to be together. Louis protested, even threatened to ground her if she didn’t stop, but in the end he gave in. If Rosie didn’t mind, then why would he? It’s not like he hadn’t been trying to impress Zayn on his own. It’s just that he’d failed to do so, so far.

“Thanks for the biscuits,” he hears and – right. Mr. Malik. _Zayn_. They’re talking.

And the biscuits. God, the biscuits.

Rosie came up with a pretty genius plan, Louis has to admit that. She’s always enjoyed baking but had always done it with her mother. Louis told her things would go wrong, that he was terrible at baking and hadn’t tried since that time he offered to bake a cake for Liam’s birthday and accidentally set the oven on fire. But his daughter insisted that she knew how to do it, that biscuits would be the way to her teacher’s heart, and so they tried. Tried. Because three hours and way too many cracked eggs later, they only managed to bake one biscuit that was actually edible.

So Louis had rushed to the nearest bakery, running in ten minutes before closing time and running back home with eight freshly baked biscuits Rosie could bring in the next morning to give to her teacher.

“You’re welcome,” he manages, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. God, his daughter is nowhere to be found but here he is, sweaty palms and shaking on his legs like he’s never talked to an attractive man before. “Rosie and I baked them ourselves. Last night.”

Zayn raises an eyebrow and opens the tin, looking at the leftover biscuits.

“You’re very good at baking biscuits. Very talented. They look and taste exactly like the ones from that cute bakery I always get when my mum visits.”

Louis nearly chokes on his own saliva.

Zayn laughs.

“I’m – “ Louis begins, looking around quickly to find something he can talk about just to change the topic. “We just – look, I’m – where is my daughter?”

His panicked reaction only makes Zayn laugh harder.

“Don’t even worry about it,” he says when he’s stopped laughing, closing the tin again and putting it back on his desk. “It’s the thought that counts, yeah? I love biscuits, whether you baked them yourself or not. So thanks, really.”

Louis blushes and nods, smiling at the other man. His heart rate is slowing down and his hands feel less sticky.

“So, I mean, you’re welcome,” he says, taking a deep breath. He can do this. He can admit that they are store-bought. Maybe he will even be able to make Zayn laugh again with a little explanation.

“We tried, but I’m a disaster when it comes to baking and Rosie apparently hasn’t been paying attention every time she bakes them with her mum, so in the end we only had one acceptable biscuit and that just wasn’t enough.” Louis takes a deep breath to calm himself down before he continues. “But Rosie said she didn’t even want to go to school at all if she didn’t have biscuits to give to her favourite teacher, like, _ever_ , so buying them was the only option.”

Thankfully, Zayn does laugh. Louis feels the last remaining nerves disappear slowly.

“I sure do love biscuits, so thank you very much,” Zayn grins. “But you came in here looking for your daughter, yeah? She’s in the vegetable garden, helping out one of the other teachers.”

When Louis raises his eyebrow in question, Zayn explains. “It’s for the younger kids to learn about plants and the little bugs and what not, but the older ones are allowed to help after class and take home some of the vegetables. Part of a new teaching plan that we’re experimenting with and Rosie got really enthusiastic when I told the class about it.”

Now it’s Louis’ turn to laugh. Rosie hates vegetables with a passion. She eats them because she has to, but dinner time is never fun because of it. And secondly, she hates bugs as well. Anything that crawls and has six legs makes her either cry or scream.

Zayn clearly doesn’t understand why he’s laughing, but before Louis can explain, he feels two arms wrap around his legs and sees a bundle of carrots dangling from a tiny hand.

“Hi dad!” Rosie yells, pulling away and coming to stand next to her father.

“Hi love,” Louis replies, smiling softly and leaning down to kiss the top of her head. “There you are. Are you ready to go home?”

His daughter nods happily and gives half of the carrots she’s holding to Mr. Malik.

“Bye Mr. Malik, see you tomorrow!” And then she’s running out of the room, not even bothering to reply to Louis.

“Well,” Louis says, turning back to Zayn. Usually he’d come up with some kind of witty joke about either the biscuits or the carrots, but it’s like this man sucks all of the fun out of him. Too bad he’s not sucking anything else. _No_. Louis needs to leave. _Now_.

“Bye,” he nearly fucking squeaks, and then he’s turning around too, following his daughter and hoping that at least some part of that entire conversation managed to impress the man of his dreams.

-

“I don’t think the biscuit thing worked,” Louis tells Rosie that night while they’re having tea.

She gasps and looks up at him, looking almost horrified.

He understands, though, because she was the one who came up with the plan and she was the one who was convinced that it would work. Maybe he shouldn’t have trusted a ten-year-old, though. Maybe he should have just forced Liam to introduce him to Zayn. That probably would have worked better. But then again, doing this with his daughter is kind of fun. Probably not the most common father-daughter activity, but fun nonetheless.

“But Mr. Malik said they tasted good!” Rosie yells. She drops her fork and pushes away her plate, vegetables long forgotten about.

“He knows we bought them,” Louis pouts, and honestly, did he suddenly turn into a ten-year-old as well?

Before he can even say anything else, Rosie raises her tiny fist and exclaims that she has a new plan.

-

The following Monday, Louis finds himself pulling up to his daughter’s school a little before lunch time with her little lunch box sitting on the passenger seat next to him.

Rosie’s second genius plan consisted of her ‘accidentally’ forgetting her lunch so Louis would have to bring it to her in class. Louis had to admit it sounded like a better plan than the biscuit one, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. Luckily for him he didn’t have work that day so if he managed to embarrass himself in front of Zayn and his daughter’s entire class, he wouldn’t have to show up at work afterwards and could just curl up in bed to deal with his embarrassment alone. Not that it would be necessary. It was a fool proof plan. He just has to show up and knock on the door, wait for Zayn to open it and then show him his best smile while giving him Rosie’s lunch. No conversation longer than a few sentences needed, but it would be enough for him to show Zayn that he is a loving, sweet dad who will make sure his daughter is well fed. Or something like that. Louis can’t really think clearly anymore.

He gets out of the car and walks into the school, Rosie’s lunch box pressed tightly against his stomach. There’s a good chance his knuckles have turned white from the squeezing but that little lunch box feels like it’s Louis’ lifeline right now. Like it’s the one thing that’s keeping him from going insane. He’s pathetic and he’s fully aware of it, but it’s Mr. Perfect he’s trying to impress, alright?

Not even a minute later he’s already standing in front of the door and raises his hand to knock. Just as his hand is about to meet with the wood, the door opens, and he’s met with the sight of Zayn’s ridiculously attractive face. Louis nearly drops the lunch box.

“Um,” is all he manages.

“Well, well, well,” Zayn says with a smirk, looking Louis up and down as he leans on the doorway with his arms crossed. “Look who we have here.”

“Lunch,” Louis replies nonsensically, holding up the box. “Rosie forgot her lunch this morning.”

Zayn takes the box from him with a smile, their fingers brushing against each other for a moment.

Louis is going to die. There are butterflies in his stomach and a buzzing in his veins. He’s so in love. So utterly, pathetically in love.

“Thanks,” the other man answers. “We always make sure to have some extra sandwiches and juice boxes in the fridge, but I’m sure Rosie would much rather enjoy her own sandwiches.”

Frustratingly enough, Louis can’t figure out whether Zayn is teasing or being serious, so he just nods.

“See you next time, yeah?” Zayn says, and before he gets the chance to reply, Louis is being checked out once again and then left alone, the door closing and Zayn disappearing out of his sight. It’s disappointing, is what it is, but at least he didn’t do something embarrassing like confess his love to the other man right there and then. He just needs to work on his speech, that’s all.

Next time, though. He got a ‘next time’. Louis can’t wait for when that’ll be.

-

The weeks after that, Louis and Rosie keep coming up with plans. Even Liam has been helping them, inviting both Louis and Zayn for drinks but when Louis showed up at the bar ten minutes late, he was met with a sad-looking best friend.

“Zayn cancelled,” Liam had said with sad puppy eyes. “Had to babysit his youngest sister last minute.”

So, like, things haven’t been going very well, but Louis is not about to give up now. He’s already come so far. Zayn greets him when they park their cars next to each other and Rosie has come home from school multiple times saying Zayn says “hi” to Louis. Rosie also keeps working in the vegetable garden but is not telling her dad about it, so when Louis shows up at school to pick her up and she’s still not there fifteen minutes after everyone else has left, he gets to go into her classroom and talk to Zayn while she washes her hands and the vegetables. It’s a slow progress, but a progress nonetheless, so Louis isn’t complaining.

Except that he’d like things to hurry the fuck up already.

-

It’s the Friday before Christmas holidays that Louis has had enough of it.

Things have been going better. He’s finally gone back to his cheeky, flirty self, having learned how to keep his nerves under control, and it’s safe to say that he and Zayn have been flirting back and forth. He also asked Liam to do some research but Liam is a loser and doesn’t know how to ask Zayn about his love life without giving too much away, so Louis has been on his own. Well, and Rosie. He always has his daughter.

But, like – Louis is ready for more. He’s been pining over the man for months now and he’s ready for the next step. Luckily for him, Rosie’s school always arranges a Christmas dinner on the day before holidays start and they always ask the parents if they want to help preparing the meal and decorating the classroom with Christmas decorations.

Needless to say, Louis was the first to sign up.

Because he also gets to attend the dinner and there was a dress code, Louis gets to dress up in his nicest clothes. He’s wearing simple dress pants and shoes that aren’t his old, worn Vans for once, but he’s also wearing a button up he knows looks good on him. Especially with the top two buttons undone. If tonight isn’t the night he gets to seduce Zayn, then Louis is officially going to give up.

Aside from the dinner, there will also be a musical performed by the children about Santa and his helpers. They’ve worked hard on it, have been practicing the songs for weeks, but Louis fails to keep his attention on the children. They’re all incredibly endearing in their pretty little dresses and suits, and they’re doing so well, but – but Zayn is looking even better than usual. Louis can’t even tell what it is that makes him look so good, but it’s like he’s the damn Christmas miracle himself. Like all of the stars got put together in his eyes, shining brightly and – no. Louis needs to stop. His daughter is trying her best, singing along to the songs loudly and Louis isn’t even paying attention to it. He feels so ashamed, but when he catches her eye she subtly shows him a thumbs-up. Sneaky little shit. Of course she noticed her father staring at her teacher. Louis is surprised she didn’t even tell him to take his chance tonight.

When he focuses his attention back on Zayn, he’s shocked to be looking right into the other man’s eyes. Zayn notices he’s looking and sneaks out of the classroom, walking past the parents and motioning for Louis to follow him right before he walks out.

Louis doesn’t even have to think twice before following him.

Fortunately the other parents are too busy watching the kids’ musical, because before Louis knows it he’s being pressed up against a wall and being kissed passionately. As if on instinct, his hands find Zayn’s face, cupping it much too gently for their heated kiss. Zayn makes a soft noise and only kisses him harder, tongue meeting tongue and hands fisted into Louis’ shirt. It’s all Louis has been dreaming of for the past few months but so much more at the same time.

He has no idea how much time has passed when Zayn finally breaks away, but he can still hear the children singing (although it’s a new song, so they must have been kissing for at least a few minutes) so he figures they’re still safe.

“Wow,” Louis breathes, moving one of his hands to Zayn’s chest to feel if his heart is beating just as fast.

It is. Louis feels himself getting weak at the knees.

“Thought you would have made your move by now,” Zayn whispers, leaning back in and nipping at Louis’ jaw gently. “But all you did was stare and I just – couldn’t wait any longer, you know? Had to have you.”

Louis breathes in sharply when Zayn bites a little harder. He can’t think, can hardly breathe, can only pull Zayn in for another kiss. The man goes easily and they lose all sense of time once again.

It’s even harder to break the kiss this time, but Louis knows they’ve been gone for way too long already. The musical must be nearly over and done with and he really, really doesn’t want any of the other parents to see them like this.

“Zayn,” Louis gasps as he pushes him away. “Zayn, we have to go back.”

They both stare at each other for a long second before Zayn nods, stepping back and running a hand through his hair. He already looks ruined, eyes wide and lips slick and so, so pink that all Louis can think about is those lips wrapped around his cock.

“Zayn,” he says again, as some kind of warning because _no_ , those thoughts are dangerous and he can’t have this situation last any longer because he won’t be able to stop himself from thinking about those things if it does.

“Yeah, alright. I’m not finished with you, though,” Zayn replies and then he’s gone, sneaking back into the classroom just as the parents start applauding.

The musical is over, then.

Louis gives himself a couple of seconds to calm down before he goes back in as well, finding Rosie watching him with a knowing smile. She’s too young for this. Way too young. Louis just shrugs and refuses to answer her questions when she comes running towards him. It’ll be a funny story for when she’s older, but for now he tells her that he and Zayn just went to check in on the food to see if any of the children have snuck into the kitchen to steal one of the cupcakes. She doesn’t buy it, of course she doesn’t, but she stays quiet. Louis raised her well.

The rest of the night runs smoothly. The kids enjoy the food and Louis finds himself engaging in pleasant conversations with the other parents for most of the night. He keeps an eye on Rosie, though, and is happy to see she’s enjoying herself. He also keeps an eye on Zayn and is more than pleased to see that the man is doing the exact same thing to Louis. They exchange knowing smiles and when it’s time to leave, Louis feels happier and lighter than he has in years. They’ve only kissed and haven’t had much time to talk, but there’s hope. Hope and a funny feeling in his stomach he hasn’t felt in a very, very long time.

After Louis has put Rosie to bed that night, he moves to his own room to get changed into sweats and a hoodie. When he pulls off the pants, a small piece of paper falls to the floor. When Louis picks it up and sees the string of numbers, he immediately knows it’s Zayn’s phone number.

He goes to sleep happier than ever that night.

-

It doesn’t take long for the two men to find themselves stuck in a whirlwind of secret meetings, heated kisses and rushed blowjobs.

Louis had called Zayn the day after, an hour after Rosie had gone to bed, and didn’t end the call until the other end of the line went silent save for the occasional intake of breath.

Their first phone call and they were already comfortable enough to keep talking until one of them fell asleep. Ridiculous.

Louis enjoyed it, though; enjoyed the late night phone calls, the early morning texts, the smiles shared when they saw each other in the parking lot of his daughter’s school. When Rosie was gone for the day or night to spend time with her mother, Louis either went over to Zayn’s house or invited the man over to his. They shared the bed whenever possible and went on dates in the private of their own homes. They didn’t want to risk going out and being seen by the wrong people, not while their relationship didn’t even have that official label yet. And Rosie? Louis didn’t want to tell her about it yet, either. He knew that dating his daughter’s teacher could have some bad consequences. He knew people would talk about it and quite frankly, no matter how much he enjoyed spending time with Zayn, Rosie still came first and Louis did not want to make her uncomfortable.

So they kept it a secret, and it was all fine for a few months. Perfect, even.

Until it wasn’t.

-

It was only a few months before the end of the school year when Zayn broke things off because he didn’t feel like he could get away with dating one of his students’ father.

Louis was devastated. While Rosie did notice her father’s sudden change in behaviour, he refused to tell her. He got her to spend more time at her mother’s place, encouraged her to go to friends’ houses after school a bit more and even got Liam and Sophia to babysit sometimes.

It was pathetic, and some people would call him a bad father if he knew, but his heart was broken.

He cried and drank and even threw some plates at a wall but nothing worked. Zayn was on his mind day in, day out, and Louis knew that wouldn’t change anytime soon.

So, naturally, he decided he had to try and get the man back in his life.

But not until after he’s had enough time to cry over his broken heart.

-

One night, a couple of weeks after the ‘break up’ (they weren’t official but Louis has no idea what else to call it, doesn’t know if there’s a name for ‘we almost were but then we weren’t’), Liam invites him for drinks. Louis agrees easily, doesn’t even think about it, because Rosie is spending the night at her mother’s once again and he could really, _really_ use a drink.

But when he arrives at the bar, it’s not just Liam he finds.

There’s Zayn.

Beautiful, beautiful Zayn, whom Louis is still very much in love with.

Fuck. He’s _seriously_ in love with the guy. He's not just joking around or being dramatic anymore; he's in love with his daughter’s teacher, in love with the guy he saw himself building a life with, in love with the guy who broke things off because he felt they were inappropriate.

Louis takes a deep breath and smoothes down his T-shirt, wishing he’d worn something that makes him look more fuckable and less like he couldn’t give a fuck about his appearance. But that’s what heartbreak does to him, and maybe it’ll make Zayn realise he’s made a mistake. The chances of that are slim, but there’s a 'maybe'. A 'hopefully'.

Zayn looks up at him when he sits down, nods quietly but turns back to his beer before Louis gets the chance to greet him. So he greets Liam instead, pulls him in for a hug and chats with him and orders a beer, two beers, three, until his hands stop shaking and he’s able to talk to Zayn as well.

Their conversation is flat and boring, nothing like the conversations they used to have late at night about their biggest dreams and biggest fears. It’s nothing like those times they talked about love and what it means to them, nothing like when Louis told Zayn everything about the relationship between him and Rosie’s mother and what went wrong between them, nothing like when he tried to explain his love for his daughter and when Zayn admitted he’d always wanted children but never found the right person to raise them with. It’s nothing like that and it makes Louis feel sick, makes him forget about his beer and order a glass of water instead.

When Zayn gets up not much later and tells them he’s leaving, Liam stares at Louis until he follows him.

-

By the time Louis makes it outside he’s expecting Zayn to have left already, but he’s met with the sight of him leaning against the wall, cigarette between his lips.

“Hi,” Louis says pathetically.

Zayn looks up but doesn’t say anything back, just gives him a short nod once again and takes a drag from his cigarette.

It’s so not like the man Louis met all those months ago. It’s – it’s almost like he’s affected by the break-up as much as Louis is. The stars in his eyes seem to have burnt out and his skin looks paler, though that might just be the way the moon shines on the two of them.

“I think you made a mistake,” Louis dares to say.

Zayn shakes his head slowly, throws the cigarette to the floor and pushes himself away from the wall.

“I need to go home now,” is all he says, and then he’s walking away, shoulders sagged forward and his step quicker than usual.

"It's her last year before she leaves for high school," Louis blurts.

Zayn falters in his steps and turns around ever so slowly, his eyebrows raised in question.

"I mean - it'll be less weird then, yeah?" he tries to explain, cheeks flushing a deep red. "Less - less illegal? Less inappropriate."

It stays quiet between the two men. Louis is just about to give up, about to raise his hands and tell Zayn that he's right about this being wrong, them being wrong, when he sees the other man walking towards him. Suddenly he's being pushed back against the wall behind him, two hands on his shoulders, a thigh between his and lips pressed against his ear:

"I'll be picking you up at seven tomorrow. Arrange for someone to babysit her and wear those tight jeans of yours that you wore when we first met. Tell Rosie you'll pick her up in the morning, yeah? We’re doing it properly this time."

And then he's gone, leaving Louis slightly breathless and with his pants feeling a lot tighter than it did a few minutes before.

They're doing this, then. He's going on a date with Zayn. A real, actual date, wining and dining with the promise of sex. No more sneaking around, no more blowjobs in the back of Louis' car, no more late night texts deleted as soon as the sun rises, no more feeling guilty when they smile at each other a second too long. Or, well - maybe they'll still sneak around and blow each other in the back of the car, but they'll do it because it's _fun_. Maybe they'll still feel the need to delete texts because Rosie likes playing games on Louis' phone and Louis would die if she saw how he talks to her (soon-to-be-former) teacher. But they won't have to feel bad about doing all those things anymore. They'll be allowed, and they'll be allowed to hold hands and kiss and go on dates and take Rosie to that hamburger restaurant she likes so much. They'll be a real, actual couple.

Louis makes a mental note to get his daughter a cupcake and a new iPod, or something, as a thanks for her help with bringing him and her teacher together.

-

It's no surprise to anyone that four years later, Rosie gets to be the ring-bearer at their wedding.

**Author's Note:**

> To anyone who read this: thank you so much!
> 
> To alnima: hopefully I managed to do your prompt justice! I'm sorry for the lack of smut, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. :) I definitely enjoyed writing this fic.
> 
> Also, I started writing this before the whole "Louis is becoming a dad" thing so like... This fic has absolutely nothing to do with that.
> 
> Please feel free to leave a comment and if you have any tips or criticism then those are 100% welcome too. Also, if you spot any mistakes, please let me know so I can change it. Thank you.


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